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Sham journals, predatory publishers, and journals with little impact exist in both the Closed Access arena and the Open Access arena. Before publishing in any journal, authors should take time to investigate both the journal and the editorial board. If you are new to Open Access publishing, or publishing in general, please consider contacting your subject librarian.
Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications.
Some criteria to consider...
Some criteria to consider...
Is the journal included in the Directory of Open Access Journals?
Are publishing fees and copyright ownership clearly indicated?
Is the publisher a member of a reputable industry organization such as Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association or the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)?
Examine the journal's website for such information as affiliation with a university or professional organization, editorial board credentials, or acceptance rates. If you have doubts, contact members of the editorial board or article authors.
ThinkCheckSubmit - This tool, produced with the support of a coalition from across scholarly communications in response to discussions about deceptive publishing, walks you through the process of evaluating journals.
Adapted from Paul Blobaum's Predatory Publishing and Spamferences LibGuide, Governor's State University
Tips from publishers, universities and Open Access communties
Tips from publishers, universities and Open Access communties
How do you know if your journal is of high quality?
One of the concerns sometimes raised about OA is that journals might be unreliable. There is a fear that peer review, the process which underpins research integrity, might be missing from open access publishing. While you should be aware there are some open access journals which do not follow the highest standards, most OA titles provide a trustworthy service for authors and readers.
Evaluating Open Access Journals
- List of evaluation criteria
Nature's Checklist
- Check that the publisher provides full, verifiable contact information, including address, on the journal site. Be cautious of those that provide only web contact forms.
- Check that a journal's editorial board lists recognized experts with full affiliations. Contact some of them and ask about their experience with the journal or publisher.
- Check that the journal prominently displays its policy for author fees.
- Be wary of e-mail invitations to submit to journals or to become editorial board members.
- Read some of the journal's published articles and assess their quality. Contact past authors to ask about their experience.
- Check that a journal's peer-review process is clearly described and try to confirm that a claimed impact factor is correct.
- Find out whether the journal is a member of an industry association that vets its members, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (www.doaj.org) or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (www.oaspa.org).
- Use common sense, as you would when shopping online: if something looks fishy, proceed with caution.
Check to see if the journal is included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Journals included in the DOAJ must exercise quality control on submitted papers and meet a number of other selection criteria.
Check to see if the journal's publisher is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publisher's Association (OASPA) or if the journal adheres to the OASPA Professional Code of Conduct.
Evaluate how well the journal meets the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, a list of criteria developed jointly by the DOAJ, OASPA, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
University of Massachusetts. Chan Medical School
University of Massachusetts. Chan Medical School
Finding and Evaluating Journals
Lamar Soutter Library Skills Series
Issues in Scholarly Publishing and Communication
September 15, 2017
Finding and Evaluating Journals (PDF)
In this presentation, we demonstrate helpful tools and discuss criteria to consider when choosing a publishing venue. We also share tips for identifying and avoiding so-called predatory publishers, an increasingly common feature on the scholarly publishing landscape.
SPARC
SPARC
HowOpenIsIt?: A Guide for Evaluating the Openness of Journals
This guide provides a means to identify the core components of OA and how they are implemented across the spectrum between “Open Access” and “Closed Access”. Journals have built policies that vary widely across the six fundamental aspects of OA – reader rights, reuse rights, copyrights, author posting rights, automatic posting, and machine readability.
Created by SPARC in conjunction with PLOS and the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), the HowOpenIsIt? Open Access Guide standardizes Open Access terminology in an easily understandable, comprehensive resource.
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